


Distant Mountains

by Fighter69



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, well the rest of the world is modern, yasha a little less so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:55:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23976355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fighter69/pseuds/Fighter69
Summary: Yasha is drawn to leave, but she is also drawn to go back. (A study on loneliness and longing)
Relationships: Beauregard Lionett/Yasha
Comments: 1
Kudos: 32





	Distant Mountains

Yasha sped through dirt roads on her motorbike, more of a street legal dirt bike than anything, as thunder rolled and lightning crackled ahead of her. The bike had been a gift from Gustav before he'd been arrested, before she'd handed Molly the keys to her truck and promised him that she'd be back, just not yet. But Molly was gone, and that old, beat-up red pickup was a hundred or more miles away, carrying with it the closest thing she had to a family. 

Yasha eyed an entrance to an off-road vehicle route and banked a sharp right, careening over small pits and large roots until she was confident that she was far enough away from the actual road. She killed the engine and stashed the bike, her helmet, and her leather jacket behind some brush, bringing only her pack with her as she trekked towards the sound of a rushing creek and the promise of dull thunder in the distance. Yasha climbed the rocky hill in front of her and was pleased to find a near perfect campsite, mostly clear of trees except for a few on rocky outcroppings further up the hill that would serve to protect her from lightning, and a path down to the creek for when she needed water. Right now the Mighty Nein were probably doing something similar, either pulling over to set up their tents on some secluded backroad or purchasing a few motel rooms, depending on how well the last job they took paid. 

It was necessary, she briefly thought, being away from them.

She collected a stick and a large bundle of twigs and quickly set up her tarp, pitching it low and facing it towards the dark clouds rolling in. With her twigs and some shredded bark she started a small fire near the mouth of her shelter, and boiled a small pot of water in which she poured a pouch of instant potatoes along with a few slices of salami and a generous helping of good, hard cheese. She ate her meal in silence as rain began to fall and the thunder grew louder. Rocky mountains loomed underneath the storm clouds, and every so often flashes of lightning illuminated the snow speckled peaks as thunder echoed off the mountainside. Yasha's heart ached. 

It ached the night before she left, an ache for something new and unknowable, an ache for storm clouds and harsh winds and air that wasn't stagnant and suffocating. It ached for Zuela, for Mollymauk, a paralyzing, heart-wrenching ache that often came close to knocking her down and keeping her from ever getting back up again.

But this ache was different.

Lightning streaked down closer now, and thunder reverberated around her. Each lightning strike etched itself in the back of her eyes, each boom of thunder consumed her senses, and all around her the rain began to fall at an unrelenting pace. Distantly Yasha thought of how dangerous it was to be up here in such a storm, but she was so entranced by its power that she didn't feel any fear. As long as she was in the storm she couldn't feel fear or longing or loneliness.

She sat there for hours, letting her mind go blank, but as the thunder faded and the rain slowed its descent, Yasha was pulled out of her trance. The sky was lighter now, the sun no longer behind the clouds but instead almost all the way behind the mountains, letting its last few rays of light illuminate Yasha's campsite.

Yasha sighed and turned away from the entrance to her shelter, pulling her bag closer to her so she could unhook her sleeping pad and roll it out onto the ground. 

She crawled onto the pad and reached into the bag, pulling out her wool blanket, and as she did something landed to the side of her with a thunk.

Beside her was the cellphone that the others convinced her to get. She hadn't turned it on since she had left them, not even when she had stayed near town for a few days, cutting firewood and putting up fences for nearby ranchers. Absent mindedly she grabbed the phone and flipped it open, her thumb hovering over the power button. She stared at it, and slowly pressed her thumb down, squinting hard as the screen came to life with light and color.

Shockingly she had service, and her phone buzzed rapidly as notifications came pouring in. Her voice mailbox was full, with ten messages all from Jester, and she had received 36 new text messages. Most were from Jester, who had apparently taken it upon herself to send her pictures of the Mighty Nein at least once a day. Three were from Caleb, two pictures of Frumpkin curled up into a ball and one audio recording of him purring. The last text was from Beau.

"hey."

Yasha stared at the singular word on the screen and slowly typed, "Hi."

Ten minutes passed, and then her phone vibrated.

"you've been gone a while."

She looked at the sky, the clouds were moving beyond the horizon, but the scent of change still hung heavily in the air.

“I’ll be back soon.”

Fifteen minutes. The brightest stars began to appear. The moon rose, cold and blue over the mountains. 

“when?”

Ten more minutes passed. Yasha stared at her phone, unable to form a response. A cold breeze blew in and she looked north, drawn by a sudden urge to pack up her camp and start walking. A desire to walk away from her bike and all the memories that came with it, a desire to drop her phone, drop the book she took everywhere with her, and walk deeper into the wilderness and leave everything behind.

And then her phone buzzed again.

A blurry picture appeared in her text conversation with Beau, and as it loaded a scene unfolded of her friends sitting in a worn-down motel room. Caduceus was standing in front of a small table with his propane stove and a pan, mid stir as to his right Fjord was frozen mid fall while Nott and Jester aimed small water guns at him. Caleb sat in the corner with his cat around his shoulders, seemingly staring into a book but his eyes carefully tracked the chaos next to him. Beau’s face took up the left side of the picture, her dark hair flowing messily down, undone from her usual topknot, framing her face as her eyes shined sharp blue and her lips upturned into a wry smile. Yasha wanted to stare at the photo for hours.

The breeze blew swift again from the north but as she looked up she tore her gaze away and instead focused east, and over the edge of the mountains a single bolt of lightning struck, distant and brief but so stark that it burned into her eyes.

The air left Yasha in an instant and her heart soared. She looked down at her phone and smiled, bigger and wider than she had in weeks.

“Two days. I promise.”  
‐----

Somewhere, in a crowded motel room in the middle of nowhere, Beau heard thunder, and smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> I am a specific person with specific interests and I'll be damned if I won't force others to read about them under the guise of critical role character study.


End file.
